School wins first all-sports Commissioner’s Cup since three-year streak from 2001-02 to 2003-04
The Pepperdine University Waves received a handful of West Coast Conference honors at the end of the academic year on June 5.
The school received the WCC Commissioner’s Cup, an all-sports award bestowed to the league’s top-performing school in conference play. Pepperdine also won the WCC’s Women’s All-Sports Award.
Additionally, Waves women’s tennis player Nikki Redelijk was named the WCC Female Mike Gilleran Scholar-Athlete of the Year and men’s cross country runner Johnathan Flint was named the WCC Male Postgraduate Scholarship winner.
Pepperdine won half of the eight honors the conference gives out to the best and brightest of its athletes and member institutions.
This is the first time Pepperdine has won the Commissioner’s Cup since the school won the recognition the first three season of the award’s existence from 2001-02 to 2003-04.
Pepperdine Director of Athletics Tanner Gardner said winning the Commissioner’s Cup is a testament to the overall success and unity of the Waves’ athletic department and university.
“It takes the hard work and dedication of each of our devoted student-athletes, excellent coaches and committed department staff, as well as the support of professors, campus staff and university leadership, to triumph this way,” Gardner stated. “What a powerful showcase of what makes Pepperdine such a special place.”
The Waves last won the Women’s All-Sports Award in 2009-10, and this is the sixth time in program history they have won the honor. Pepperdine’s women’s volleyball, women’s tennis and women’s golf teams all captured WCC crowns this school year. The beach volleyball and women’s soccer squads had second-place finishes in the league rankings.
Redelijk, the women’s scholar-athlete of the year, was successful on the tennis court and the classroom this school year. She also had a positive impact on the community.
The award winner is selected by a vote of the WCC’s Executive Council to recognize stellar accomplishments in athletics, academics, and community service by individuals who have completed their collegiate eligibility.
Redelijk, who played fourth and fifth singles positions for Pepperdine, had an 18-8 overall record and closed the Waves’ 2024 campaign on a nine-match winning streak. She was a named to the All-WCC second team in singles this season and was an All-WCC Tournament team selection. Redelijk was the conference’s singles player of the week once this season and was a nationally ranked singles player the entire season.
She was named Pepperdine’s Female Scholar Athlete of Year. She graduated summa cum laude from Pepperdine’s Seaver College with degrees in political science and economics and earned WCC All-Academic honors for three consecutive years.
Redelijk was a member of Pepperdine’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and the Waves Leadership Council. She helped put together events such as a blood drive donation to help fight cancer, a hygiene kit drive for unhoused people, and the Malibu Tiny Tot Olympics.
She is the 11th Pepperdine student-athlete to win the scholar-athlete award, which is named after the WCC’s first full-time commissioner, Mike Gilleran. Redelijk’s former teammate Ashley Lahey, who won the recognition in 2021, was the last Wave to win the honor. Redelijk is the second Pepperdine women’s tennis player and eighth woman from Pepperdine to gain the award.
Flint, the distance runner from Flower Mound, Texas, garnered the WCC’s postgraduate scholarship after earning a 4.0 grade point average with a degree in finance and a minor in applied mathematics. He was president of the Waves Leadership Council and part of the Malibu Community Labor Exchange. Flint volunteered to help beach cleanup in Santa Monica, with the Malibu Tiny Tot Olympics, and with a mental health trivia night.
He was Pepperdine’s 2024 Scholar Athlete of the Year after being a four-time school scholar-athlete. Flint was named to the WCC All-Academic Team last fall and is a three-time WCC Commissioner’s Honor Roll honoree.
He scored in the WCC Cross Country Championships all four of his years as Wave and is a two-time conference runner of the week. He competed in NCAA regionals three times. Flint’s time of 24 minutes and 17.2 seconds in the 8K ranks in the top 10 Pepperdine history. Additionally, he holds top 10 times in four other events.
Flint is attending the University of Oxford’s Said Business School to pursue a master’s in financial economics. He aims to work at a venture capital firm emphasizing emerging markets.